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The player plays an unseen human character named Mike Schmidt who has recently been hired as a security guard for the night shift at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. The restaurant is a pizzeria that features animatronic characters Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy as its main attraction. At the beginning of Mike's shift on his first night on the job, he receives a phone recording from the previous night guard (dubbed "Phone Guy" by fans of the series) who had recorded a series of recordings during his last week to help Mike settle into his new job. He tells the player that the animatronics wander around the restaurant freely at night or else their servomotors would lock up. He also adds that the animatronics used to be able to wander during the daytime as well until an event that is referred to as the "Bite of '87" occurred and resulted in a victim losing their frontal lobe but not their life. hE warns Mike that if an animatronic encounters a human it may assume that it is an endoskeleton without its suit and will "forcefully stuff them" into a spare mechanical Freddy Fazbear costume which will kill the person in the process. Phone Guy also on late nights gives advice on Foxy and Freddy's bizarre behaviors. His recordings come to an end when it assumed that he was killed by the animatronics while recording the fourth night's message. The fifth night's recording plays a demonic message in place of the Phone Guy's usual messages.

Upon completing the fifth night, Mike will be rewarded with a paycheck worth $120 for the week and will be able to work an optional sixth night. Completing the sixth night will award Mike with a paycheck of $120.50 and unlock a seventh night which allows customization of the animatronic's AI. Upon completing this last night, Mike will be fired by Fazbear Entertainment for tampering with the animatronics, general unprofessionalism, and odor.

More of the Five Nights at Freddy's lore is told through newspaper clippings that randomly appear in the background on one of the camera feeds. They reveal that the restaurant was site to the disappearances of five children whose bodies were never found, after a man dressed as one of the animatronics lured them into a back room and reportedly murdered them. Later, the restaurant received complaints that the animatronics began to smell foul and became stained with blood and mucus around the eyes and mouth, with one customer comparing them to "reanimated carcasses".

Mike Schmidt - The unseen character that the player controls throughout the whole game. Mike is a newly hired security guard for Freddy Fazbear's Pizza that must survive all five nights at the pizzeria or else be stuffed forcefully into an animatronic suit by the animatronics.

Phone Guy (voiced by Scott Cawthon) - Another unseen character that aids Mike throughout the game. Like his fan-given name suggests, he talks to Mike through pre-recorded messages on the office's telephone. He constantly reassures Mike and tells him not to worry despite the obvious dangers of the pizzeria. Not much is known about him other than him being the previous night guard who was finishing up his last week at the time of recording his messages. He presumably dies while recording the fourth night's message.

Freddy Fazbear - The titular character of the game and the restaurant. Freddy is an animatronic bear that is one of the four animatronics of the restaurant and is the restaurant's mascot. He starts off on the stage that Bonnie and Chica start out on and he seems to provide the vocals of the stage band as he holds a microphone on stage. Freddy does not move off stage until the third night and becomes more active on later nights. Freddy's behavior differs from the other animatronics as he remains in dark spots on cameras when making his way to the office. The glow of his endoskeleton's eyes can be seen while he hides in the darkness. He also does not show up in the blind spot and will attack the player when the player's guard is down when he is at the last camera. Regardless of what night it is, if the power goes out, Freddy will appear outside the office with his animatronic eyes flickering in the darkness while the Toreador March jingle plays. Once the jingle ends, he will shortly attack the player.

Bonnie - One of the animatronics that appear on stage with Freddy at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. He is an animatronic rabbit and is the guitarist of the stage band and holds a guitar when on stage. He is usually the first animatronic to leave the stage. He is known for his ability to "teleport" to any room on the left side of the restaurant with the exception being Pirate Cove. He also attempts to get into the office more frequently and does not stick around the office doorway for long.

Chica - One of the animatronics that appear on stage with Freddy at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. She is an animatronic chicken who holds a cupcake with eyeballs while on stage. Her behavior is the opposite of Bonnie's. She attempts to get into the office less frequently and will stick around for long periods of time before leaving. She will often make noises while in the kitchen which is audio only.

Foxy - An animatronic that is separated from the other three and starts off at Pirate Cove behind the curtains and "Out of Order" sign. Foxy behaves very differently from the other three animatronics as he does not attack the player as long as he is checked on through the camera. However, checking on him too frequently can cause him to start to attack. Foxy will start to emerge if he is not checked on enough or is checked on too much. Eventually he will disappear from the Pirate Cove camera feed and can be seen on the left hallway's camera feed dashing towards the office. The player then has to immediately close the door or else Foxy will come into the office and attack the player. If his attack fails, he will go back behind the curtains at Pirate Cove to repeat the cycle.

Golden Freddy - A secret animatronic that appears if a poster of him is viewed on a camera feed. He will appear in the office shortly after and if the player continues to stare at the character, he will kill the player and crash the game. If the camera is brought up while he is in the office, he will disappear. The circumstances of this character appearing in the game makes him more supernatural than the other four animatronics.

Five Nights at Freddy's is a point-and-click survival horror game where the player must survive from 12 AM to 6 AM. Due to not being able to move, the player's security office is equipped with ways to protect themselves from the murderous animatronics. The player can use a display to view security feeds of the restaurant in order to find out the locations of animatronics. However, looking at the camera feeds leaves the player vulnerable as keeping an eye on the doors outside the office are also key to survival. The office has two doors located on the left and the right of the room. Both have light buttons that light up the camera's blind spot in the hallways and buttons that close the doors. Lighting up the blind spot can reveal animatronics hiding right outside the door and closing the door prevents them from entering the office to attack the player. If an animatronic makes it into the office undetected, the buttons on the side that the animatronic entered from will no longer function and the player will shortly be killed by an animatronic resulting in a Game Over. Using the camera, light buttons, and door close buttons use up the restaurant's power so the player must also efficiently manage the power they use or else the restaurant will black out leaving them helpless to the animatronics. Using multiple things at once can cause the power to decrease more quickly. If all the power goes out, the titular animatronic Freddy Fazbear's eyes will light up revealing its location outside the door in the left hallway in the darkness. While his lit up eyes flicker, a jingle of Toreador March will play for a short while before Freddy attacks the player and results in a Game Over. If the player manages to survive to 6 AM, the player will win the level and proceed to the next night. A player can survive attacks from animatronics and survive if the restaurant's power going out if the timer manages to change to 6 AM before the Game Over screen pops up.

Beating the game's five nights and sixth night will unlock the seventh night which is a custom night mode where the player can adjust the AI of all the animatronics excluding Golden Freddy.

The idea of Five Nights at Freddy's originally stemmed from negative reception that the creator Scott Cawthon received on his game Chipper & Sons Lumber Co. where players ridiculed the main character as looking like a "scary animatronic animal". Initially the reception had caused Cawthon to fall into a depression but eventually inspired himself into making something "a lot scarier".[2] Overall, development of the game took Cawthon six months.

Five Nights at Freddy's has many elements that did not make it in the game as evident by the game's trailer and by files found within the game's code. In the trailer, it is shown that Bonnie could run and remove his animatronic mask to reveal his endoskeleton, but Bonnie does not do this in the final game.

In the beta version of the game a life mechanic was originally in place but was removed from the final product. The camera feeds on the pizzeria map were also different and even showed each individual camera's field of vision. The camera's would light up green when selected. Cameras were also placed in slightly different spots. They were replaced by clickable boxes with labels in the final version.